Upgrading Firmware for eventual Sonnet CPU Upgrade

**AstroJoe62** · February 23rd, 2006, 03:39 PM

Hi,

I have a Sawtooth Power Mac G4 dual 450. Recently I purchased OS X (Tiger) and iLife 06 which I haven't installed yet. Of course I didn't look at the specs for iDVD which indicates it needs a minimum of a 733 Mhz processor to run. I also understand that Garage Band needs more power as well. I guess I need to get the Sonnett Encore/ST G4 Duet 1.8Ghz. I see that the firmware needs to be upgraded prior to installation. It may be a few weeks before I can purchase the Encore but I need to install OS X Tiger this weekend. I really don't want to have to go back to 9.2 to do the upgrade later. Is it possible to upgrade the firmware now to be ready for adding the processor later?

Thank you
Craig S.
AstroJoe62

**donpaulieone** · February 23rd, 2006, 08:15 PM

I'm in a similar situation as you. just ordered my sonnet 1.8 upgrade, but i don't have 9.2.2, and i'm stumbling to install it right now. from all the reading i been doing on sonnet upgrades, YOU MUST upgrade firmware from 9.2., using a SUPPLIED firmware from Sonnet. so u need to keep 9.22, and can't do anything in advance 'til u get the upgrade

ps - sheesh dual 1.8's procs just to run GarageBand, man i wish i had your money.

**AstroJoe62** · February 23rd, 2006, 10:05 PM

Don't envy me to much. This is more than just for Garage Band. My company just purchased me a new system. I do a lot of work at home and have a freelance design business so I have to keep pace to do my job. It's cheaper than buying a G5 and would allow me to use all of the software I have. If I could avoid it I'd rather put the money into my house. I will admit my side business has been good though which is why I'll be able to do this soon. I just wish it was this weekend so I could get it over with and move on.

Craig S.
AstroJoe62

**eamonlaser** · February 26th, 2006, 02:50 PM

Hi guys, just upgraded my G4 Quicksilver to Sonnet 1.8GHz processor. I had some problems initially but after two days(!) of struggling I eventually found that the process took about 1 hour in total.

1st off, you should install OS 9.2 on a seperate drive/partition to OSX or else you will get problems (this took me the two days to figure out!). It meant that when I tried to install the Sonnet Installation software my computer would just hang, and then when I tried to restart it wouldn't mount the OS disk saying it had serious errors. Very worrying! Once I installed OS 9 on the different drive it all went smoothly.

You can install the firmware earlier if you like, it won't make any difference to your system if you haven't installed the new processor, but if you have OS 9 and OS X installed you should be able to flip between the two easily anyway.

I have got one problem since the upgrade, I cannot boot up in OS 9 anymore. This is not a HUGE problem for me as I never used it before doing this install anyway, but if you have software that needs OS 9 to run you might want to look into this.

I am trying to find out about why OS 9 isn't working (I did find a thread about it somewhere this weekend while I was searching for answers to the other problem but I can't find it now!)

Cheers,

Eamon

**sinclair_tm** · February 26th, 2006, 06:54 PM

just as a heads up, i have g4 466, and my brother a 533, and both have 10.4 and ilife 05 installed completely, and working, without any problems, other then a little slow in imovie when encoding and the like. you can install and use them without a cpu upgrade. they came fresh installed on my mac when i bought it second hand, and thought that i'd have to upgrade the cpu soon to use the iapps, but its been close to a year now and i still haven't because it all works.
as far as the new cpus, the firmware does have to be installed from 9.2.2, which can be had from apple's website for free, as long as you have 9.1 installed. and it can be installed however long you want before the cpu, the patches are on their website, or were at one time anyway.

**AstroJoe62** · February 26th, 2006, 10:17 PM

Good to know thanks. So the big one I've been worried about iDVD works okay huh? Should I partition my drive and place 9.2.2 on the second partition or can I place it on the same drive as OS X. If I have to partition what amount of space would you give 9. I only have a 20 gig drive internal but I do have two 200 Gig externals. What about performance though won't I see a significant increase in speed when working in programs like iDVD or Photoshop if I upgrade the CPU or is it not enough to justify the cost of upgrading?

Craig S.
AstroJoe62